The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Helleborus plant, botanically known as Helleborus niger×Helleborus foetidus, and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Winterbells’.
The new Helleborus plant is a product of a planned breeding program in Honselersdijk, The Netherlands. The objective of the breeding program was to create new early flowering Helleborus plants with attractive leaf and flower coloration.
The new Helleborus plant originated from a cross-pollination conducted by the Inventor in Honselersdijk, The Netherlands in May, 2004 of a proprietary seedling selection of Helleborus niger identified as code number BT7, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with a proprietary seedling selection of Helleborus foetidus identified as code number 1, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Helleborus plant was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single flowering plant from within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination grown in a controlled greenhouse environment in Honselersdijk, The Netherlands in February, 2006.
Asexual reproduction of the new Helleborus plant by divisions in a controlled greenhouse environment in Honselersdijk, The Netherlands since Mary, 2006, has shown that the unique features of this new Helleborus plant are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.